Earlier this year a friend of mine saw the Curry Barker (Milk & Serial) written and directed Obsession at the cinema and suggested that I really needed to try and check it out. I never got around to it, but since then the film appears to have blown up, with me hearing about how good it is constantly from apparently the whole world. Knowing I would likely eventually get around to seeing it, I managed to avoid hearing anything at all about what the film was about. Seeing it to rent for a cheap price on Amazon Prime Video recently, I jumped at the chance to finally check it out, but I hadn't much of an idea of what to expect.
Bear (Michael Johnston) is a hopeless romantic, but also a huge coward when it comes to revealing his feelings. He secretly yearns for popular girl, Nikki (Inde Navarrette - Superman & Lois), who he works in a shop alongside, but he never seems to find the right time to admit to her how he feels. One day while buying her a present at a magic store, he spots something called 'One Wish Willow', a small wooden object that the packaging states can make one wish to come true to the person who snaps it in half. Obviously not believing this, Bear still picks it up out of curiosity. Later that day after Bear once again chickens out of telling Nikki his feelings, Bear in frustration pulls out the One Wish Willow and snaps it in half, wishing that Nikki would fall madly in love with him. The results appear almost instantly, with Nikki suddenly appearing to have strong feelings for the man. Her abrupt change in attitude alarms Bear, who rather than think it was to do with his wish he made, instead thinks she is having some type of psychotic break that she will snap out of. As the days pass her behaviour becomes increasingly creepy and psychotic. Bear is scared of her, and knows she is under some type of love spell, but decides to try and take advantage of her new obsession of him, and make his dream relationship come true.
Knowing nothing about this, I assumed this was going to be a non-supernatural thriller about a crazed stalker. Instead, this uses the old idea of a love spell that in a monkey's paw kind of way goes horribly wrong for the person using the spell. I've never really liked the idea of a love spell, likely pointing back to an episode of a horror anthology show I caught as a child that freaked me out. Here, the idea is expanded upon, really looking into what this mindless devotion to one person causes for both the victim and the person who caused it. Nikki is essentially possessed by the wish, her behaviour not her own, and forced to watch powerless from within her body at the horror of what was happening to her. That idea gave strong Get Out vibes. There were some fun scenes where the real Nikki is implied to be fighting to regain control of herself, which brings to the forefront that everything that is happening to her, the real Nikki is well aware of. The wish version of Nikki is wildly possessive of Bear, intensely obsessed with him. Starting off with gaslighting, her behaviour leads to self-destructive moments, and guilt tripping. Her every action intended to play on the protagonists emotions and get it so that he cannot be without her. Bear is a coward of a protagonist, even after he realises things really are not right, he remains convinced her can work out how to make his selfish wish work for him. The real obsession in the film is Bear's perceived feelings for Nikki. If it was real love then he wouldn't continue to treat her as he does, knowing it isn't the real her that is acting so extreme. Of course the core messed up relationship is all an analogy for toxic relationships. The type where people stay together despite being a bad match, their independency leading to constant arguments and manipulative behaviour when the best thing would be to just end things. Nikki is a terrifying force, but she is a victim here, with Bear deserving everything that happens to him personally.
Most of the horror comes from Navarrette's unhinged performance where obsession leads to pure terror. Her freakish behaviour is constantly alarming, her actions unpredictable, and her constant gaslighting bewildering. The film goes to lengths to show she literally can't exist when Bear is not around. One memorable scene has her literally freezing in place when Bear walks out the apartment they are in, until hours later he returns to find her still stood where he left her, rictus grin on her face, and covered in her own bodily fluids. She often felt like a malfunctioning android, resetting herself when one line of coercing fails to work, mood changing on a dime. In one scene she literally starts walking backwards as she 'resets' herself to try a different avenue of attack. Special effects here could be quite brutal with scenes of self inflicted damage, and a couple of visually effective deaths, the camera not shying away from showing the full violence on screen.
At its core, this 'be careful what you wish for' type story doesn't really do much to differentiate from others of its type. It does go to more extreme lengths, and its core message about toxic relationships was easy to parse. Obsession was a well made horror and one that I think will resonate with a lot of people.
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